. >> reporter: as the tornado touched down don dempsey was watching on television. >> the weather forecasters were on there saying go to the basement immediately. it's arrived. >> reporter: 700 miles away meteorologists at the storm prediction center in norman, oklahoma had been working the weather system for days. >> go, go, go, gorks go. >> reporter: issuing a dangerous situation tornado watch for much of illinois at 8:40 a.m. sunday. within an hour of that notice, the national weather service office in lincoln, illinois, 40 miles from washington, ramped up from two workers to 12. patrick bak came in on his day off. >> they knew that within the next couple of hours things were going go and once they were going go, it would go rapidly. >> reporter: how did you react personally? >> just looking at the radar it looked very bad. >> reporter: his office fired off three warnings starting at 10:50 a.m., 16 minutes before the storm hit washington. you are in a life-threatening situation, said the last warning. complete destruction possible. flying debris will be deadly. >> reporter: and as you look